March 6, 2009
The Bishop's Forum
March 8, 1989: The date of a life-changing phone call!
by Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger
In the next few weeks you will be reading and hearing much about the completion of my twentieth year as bishop of the Diocese of Evansville. There is an important prologue.
This morning, Friday, February 27, 2009, I was privileged to celebrate Holy Mass for a belated Catholic Schools Week in Jasper for Holy Family and Precious Blood Schools — and the about-to-be John Paul the Great Catholic High School opening in the fall. Before the closing blessing I always allow for each class to ask a question about anything they want. They are both interesting and challenging. This morning was no different.
A second grader, I believe, asked the simple question: “How do you become a bishop?“ It reminded me that I had promised someone on the Diocesan Pastoral Council that I would write a column about the process of the appointment of a bishop.
Clearly, as with anything in the Church or in life, there may be extenuating circumstances surrounding the appointment of a bishop. On the other hand there is a normal process. I will attempt to detail the framework at least as I know it. Later, I will use our own diocese as an example.
Background:
It is important to know that the Holy Father has a representative residing in Washington. D.C. He is the point person in the United States representing the Holy Father both as ambassador to the United States and a direct link for all Bishops to the Holy Father. He is called the Papal Nuncio (Ambassador). He is also responsible for shepherding the process for appointment of bishops in the United States. The current Papal Nuncio is Archbishop Pietro Sambi, an Italian. He is a member of the Holy Father’s diplomatic corps.
Bishops from the Ecclesiastical Provinces periodically submit to the Papal Nuncio names of priests who have demonstrated faithfulness to the Church, talents, and competencies necessary to be the pastor of diocese. The Nuncio maintains that list for future reference (which is usually as constant as change).
An ecclesiastical province is a group of dioceses, one of which is an archdiocese or technically known as the metropolitan see (seat). The other dioceses are technically known as “suffragan sees.” Their bishops are known as suffragan bishops. An archbishop is a “leader among equals” with the other bishops in the province.
There are five dioceses in the state of Indiana: the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, the Diocese of Evansville, the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, the Diocese of Gary, and the Diocese of Lafayette. We form the Indianapolis Province. Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, O.S.B. is the Metropolitan for the Province. Evansville is a suffragan diocese and I am a suffragan bishop.
The Indianapolis Province, the Chicago Province and the Milwaukee Province are the members of Region VII of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. There are fifteen regions in the United States.
The bishop is accountable to the Holy Father to whom he has promised obedience. Each deacon and priest promises obedience to their own bishop and his successors. My obedience to the Archbishop of Indianapolis as a priest of the archdiocese was transferred to the Holy Father when I accepted his invitation to become the bishop of Evansville, in a phone call from the Nuncio, March 8, 1989.